Читать книгу Mr. Galliano's Circus - Enid blyton - Страница 7

Table of Contents

It was Sunday. Jimmy remembered that he was to spend the whole day with Lotta. What fun it would be to wander about among the circus folk and see old Jumbo, and pet Jemima the clever little monkey, and have his hands licked by all the jolly little terrier dogs! Jimmy sang loudly as he got up.

He was soon in the circus field. The sun shone down. It was going to be a lovely day. But as he made his way between the caravans and the tents Jimmy was surprised to see that everyone looked gloomy.

“I wonder what the matter is?” thought Jimmy to himself. He passed the clown’s caravan, and saw Sticky Stanley eating a breakfast of bacon and eggs. Stanley looked miserable. It was strange to see the clown looking like that.

He was usually full of jokes and nonsense.

He saw Jimmy and called out to him: “Hey, Jimmy, don’t you let Mr. Galliano see you this morning! He’s forbidden any outsiders to come into the circus field.”

“Why?” asked Jimmy, in astonishment. “He was very nice to me yesterday. He gave me a ticket for the show. What’s the matter?”

“Listen to that, then!” said the clown, pointing with his fork towards the big blue caravan in which Mr. Galliano lived with his wife. “Just listen to that!”

Jimmy listened. It sounded as if about six cows were bellowing in Galliano’s caravan—but it was only Mr. Galliano being very angry indeed, and shouting at the top of his very big voice. Jimmy stared in the direction of the blue caravan—and as he stared, Mr. Galliano came down the steps at the back.

“He’s got his hat on quite straight up,” said Jimmy, at once. “He’s always had it on one side before.”

“Yes, that means bad news, all right,” said the clown. “Hop off. Jimmy. Don’t let him see you.”

Jimmy hopped off. He ran round the clown’s caravan and came to the red-and-white one in which Lotta lived with Lal and Laddo, her father and mother. Lotta was sitting on the steps outside, polishing her circus shoes.

“Hallo, Jimmy,” she said. “Come up here.”

“Lotta, what’s the matter with every one this morning?” asked Jimmy. “You all look so gloomy, and I just heard Mr. Galliano in a bad temper.”

“There’s matter enough,” said Lotta, dropping her voice. “You know Harry, our odd-job man—the carpenter who puts up the benches, does most of the packing and unpacking and all the little mending and making jobs a circus always has? Well—he ran away last night, taking nearly all the money with him that the circus took last week!”

“Oh, I say, how dreadful!” said Jimmy, shocked. “Won’t you get any money, then?”

“Not a penny,” said Lotta. “And that’s very hard, you know, because we none of us save anything. The worst of it is, Harry was so useful—we don’t really know how we are going to do without him.”

“Perhaps he will be caught,” said Jimmy.

“I don’t think so,” said Lotta. “He had a good start, because he took the money when we were all asleep last night and went off about two o’clock in the morning. He may be anywhere now. I do hope we have a good week now, Jimmy—if we don’t, it will be very bad for us all.”

“I hope you do too,” said Jimmy. “I do wish I could help a bit, Lotta.”

“I suppose you don’t know a good handy carpenter in your town who could come along for a week and help us, do you?” said Lal, Lotta’s mother, coming to the door of the caravan. “There are a lot of jobs that must be done before to-morrow night. Oona’s ladder must be made stronger, he says. And there’s a bar loose in the dogs’ big cage.”

“What about my father?” said Jimmy eagerly. “He’s a carpenter, you know! He could do anything you wanted!”

“Yes, but what about his work?” said Lal. “He can’t leave that to come to us.”

“He’s out of work,” said Jimmy. “He would be glad to come. Oh, Lotta—will you come to tea with me at home this afternoon and we could find out if my father will come? I do, do hope he can.”

“We’d better tell Mr. Galliano first,” said Lal. She called to her husband at the back of the caravan: “Laddo, will you go with Jimmy and tell Galliano about his father being a carpenter?”

“Right,” said Laddo. He put down his newspaper and ran down the caravan steps with Jimmy. “Come on, son,” he said.

Mr. Galliano was with his horses, patting them and speaking gently to them. No matter how bad a temper he sometimes flew into he was never anything but gentle with his beloved horses. No one had ever seen him sharp or unkind with any animal. All his horses loved him and would do anything in the world for him.

He heard Jimmy and Laddo coming and he turned to meet them.

“What do you want?” he said, not seeming at all pleased to see Jimmy.

“Mr. Galliano, sir, this boy says his father is a carpenter and could take Harry’s place for the week,” said Laddo.

“Tell him to come and see me this evening, yes,” said Mr. Galliano shortly, and he turned back to his horses. Laddo and Jimmy went out. Jimmy felt excited. Just suppose his father got the job to help the circus—and just suppose they kept him on! Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful!

He ran back to Lotta. “Let’s go for a walk with the dogs,” said Jimmy. “It’s such a lovely day—and every one is so gloomy here this morning. We can get back here to dinner.”

“All right,” said Lotta, and the two ran to get the excited terriers. Soon Lotta had five of the dogs on her big lead, and Jimmy had the other five. Lotta was a little bit jealous because all the dogs seemed to want to go with Jimmy.

“I never saw any one so good with animals as you, Jimmy,” she said. “At least, that’s not counting Mr. Galliano—he can tame a wild tiger and make it purr like a cat in two days!”

The two children set off over the countryside. In a little while Lotta forgot about Harry and how he had run off with every one’s money. Soon the two were having great fun, racing with their dogs and joining in the barking with laughs and shrieks.

“Shall we let them loose for a real good run?” asked Jimmy, when they were well out in the country. “They would love it so!”

So they let all the dogs loose, and with excited yaps the neat little terriers tore off to go rabbiting. Jimmy and Lotta sat under a tree.

“I did love the circus last night, Lotta,” said Jimmy. “And I did think you were clever—riding on a horse standing up and never falling off!”

“Pooh,” said Lotta, making a face at him. “That’s easy. You could do it yourself.”

“I couldn’t,” said Jimmy. “I can’t even walk on my hands yet, and it does look so easy when you all do it! I wish you’d teach me, Lotta.”

“All right,” said Lotta. “But not now. I’m too hot. I wish you belonged to the circus, Jimmy. I shall be dull without you. It’s nice to have some one to make faces at when I feel like it.”

“I can’t think why you want to do that,” said Jimmy, surprised. “All the same—I’d like to go with you when you go off again. But I wouldn’t like to leave my mother and father behind.”

“Where are those dogs?” said Lotta suddenly. “We mustn’t lose any, you know, Jimmy. My word, we should get into trouble if we did! Hie, Judy, Judy, Nigger, Spot!”

Some of the dogs came running up and flung themselves on the two children. Jimmy counted them. “Eight,” he said. “Where are the others?”

They quickly put the eight dogs on the leads. Lotta looked worried. “Whistle, Jimmy,” she said. So Jimmy whistled.

“There comes Punch!” said Lotta, and sure enough one of the missing dogs came loping over the field towards them. Jimmy whistled again and again—but the tenth dog was nowhere to be seen!

“We shall have to go,” said Lotta, looking scared. “Whatever will Lal and Laddo say when we turn up without Darky? Come on—it’s getting late. Perhaps Darky will come after us when he’s finished hunting.”

They went back to the circus. No Darky came after them. Lotta was very silent. Jimmy was miserable too. What a horrid day this was after all!

“We’ll put the dogs into the cage, and then we’ll go and tell Lal we’ve lost Darky,” said Lotta. She was crying now. Lotta loved all the dogs and she couldn’t help wondering if Darky had been caught in a trap. Also she knew that her mother would be very angry with her.

Jimmy opened the door of the great cage. As he did so a little dark dog crept out from under the cage itself. Jimmy gave a yell.

“Lotta! Darky’s here! He must have run all the way home before us and hidden under his cage. Look!”

Lotta gave a shriek of delight and hugged Darky. “You silly animal!” she said. “You did give me a fright! Oh, Jimmy—I’m so happy now!”

Jimmy was glad. He squeezed Lotta’s hand as they ran to the caravan for dinner. Lotta squeezed his hand back—but she was so strong that she made Jimmy yell out in pain. You never knew what that little monkey of a Lotta was going to do next! Jimmy dropped her hand in a hurry and felt half-cross with her. But when he smelt the smell of frying sausages he forgot everything except that he was dreadfully hungry.

They all had their dinner sitting outside the caravan. The sausages were lovely and so were the potatoes cooked in their jackets and eaten with butter and salt. Jimmy thought he had never had such a lovely dinner in his life. Afterwards there were oranges and chocolate to eat.

Jimmy took Lotta home to tea with him. He ran indoors with the little girl and found his mother making toast for tea. They always had toast on Sundays. It smelt good.

“Mother, this is Lotta. I’ve brought her home to tea because I want to ask Dad something. Where is he?”

“Out in the garden, mending the old shed,” said Mother. “Hallo, Lotta! How’s the circus going?”

“All right, thank you,” said Lotta shyly. She looked at Jimmy’s mother and thought she was lovely. She was so neat and her face was so kind. Lotta had not often been inside a house, and she looked round curiously. It seemed just as strange to her to be inside a house as it was to Jimmy to be inside a caravan.

“Dad! Dad!” shouted Jimmy, running into the back garden, “Harry, the odd-job man at the circus, has run off with the circus money—and Mr. Galliano wants a new carpenter. He says will you go and see him tonight.”

“That’s the first bit of luck I’ve had for a long time,” said Jimmy’s father, delighted. “Yes, I’ll go up and see if I can get the work after tea. A week’s work is better than nothing. Well, that’s given me an appetite for my tea! Is the toast ready, Mother?”

Soon Lotta, Jimmy, and the two grown-ups-were sitting round the tea-table. Lotta was on her very best behaviour. She didn’t make a single face. She liked Jimmy’s mother much too much to shock her!

After tea, Jimmy, Lotta, and Jimmy’s father set off to the circus field. “If only I can get that job!” said Jimmy’s father.

“I do hope you do, Dad!” said Jimmy.